Health News

Quarter of health care workers carry diarrhea spores on their hands

Date: Jan-07-2014
A new study suggests it is not uncommon to find the superbug Clostridium difficile on the hands of health care workers, highlighting a possible route through which the diarrhea bacteria spreads in hospitals.While studying a French hospital setting, study leader Dr. Caroline Landelle, from Geneva University Hospitals and Medical School, in Switzerland, and colleagues, found around 1 in 4 health care workers' hands were contaminated with C. difficile spores after they had been carrying out routine care on infected patients.

Brain rest may speed concussion recovery in teens

Date: Jan-07-2014
While for the last 10 years or so, there has been a general view among doctors and health experts in the US that people who suffer concussion should give their brains a rest while they recover, until now there has not been much firm evidence to back it up. For instance, in October 2013, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a clinical report that suggested students may need a break from school after concussion.

Mediterranean diet linked to reduced risk of type 2 diabetes

Date: Jan-07-2014
According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million adults and children in the US have diabetes. The condition is much more common in individuals over the age of 50, but new research suggests that older people may reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by following a Mediterranean diet.This is according to a study recently published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.A Mediterranean diet mainly consists of high consumption of vegetables, fruits, beans, olive oil, whole grains and fish.

Severe mental illness tied to higher rates of substance use

Date: Jan-07-2014
People with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder have a higher risk for substance use, especially cigarette smoking, and protective factors usually associated with lower rates of substance use do not exist in severe mental illness, according to a new study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.Estimates based on past studies suggest that people diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders are about twice as likely as the general population to also suffer from a substance use disorder.

Pixuvri® (pixantrone) receives positive final appraisal determination from NICE for treating aggressive B-cell NHL

Date: Jan-07-2014
Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) has reported that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the independent body responsible for driving improvement and excellence in the health and social care system in the United Kingdom (UK), has issued its Final Appraisal Determination (FAD) for PIXUVRI(®) (pixantrone).

New clinical data on day 3 embryo transfers using Eeva™ technology presented

Date: Jan-07-2014
Results of a clinical study utilizing the Eeva™ Technology by Auxogyn, that showed similar pregnancy rates among patients when embryos were transferred on Day 3 utilizing Eeva information versus Day 5 blastocyst transfers relying on morphology alone, were presented at the Association of Clinical Embryologists (ACE) 2014 Conference by Chris Adam, Laboratory Manager of the Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine (GCRM Ltd)."We are very pleased with the data being presented today at ACE," said Professor Fleming, Scientific Director of GCRM Ltd.

Academics' occupational stressors

Date: Jan-07-2014
University teaching has traditionally been regarded as a low stress occupation. In historical point of view it could be true, but it seems not to be so at modern universities. In occupational stress literature with the focus of the sources of occupational stress in university there are not so many comprehensive studies, but most of these are well documented by majority of the literature sources.The aim of our study was to get more detailed comprehension about sources of pressure in university academics*.

Breastfeeding associated with lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis, according to new study

Date: Jan-07-2014
In a new study of over 7,000 older Chinese women published online today in the journal Rheumatology, breastfeeding - especially for a longer duration - is shown to be associated with a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Specifically, it showed that women who had breastfed their children were around half as likely to have RA, compared to women who had never breastfed.The beneficial effects of breastfeeding for both mother and child are widely known, but previous studies on the association between breastfeeding and RA have been mixed.

The loving touch is critical for premature infants

Date: Jan-07-2014
The benefit that premature infants gain from skin-to-skin contact with their mothers is measurable even 10 years after birth, reports a new study in Biological Psychiatry.Physical contact with babies is essential for their physical and psychological development. This lesson has been learned the hard way, as infants neglected in hospitals and orphanages developed many problems, ranging from depression to a more global failure to thrive. But, what types of contact are necessary and what are the beneficial effects of enriching physical contact?In a new study, Dr.

MRSA infection rates drop in Veterans Affairs long-term care facilities

Date: Jan-07-2014
Four years after implementing a national initiative to reduce methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) rates in Veterans Affairs (VA) long-term care facilities, MRSA infections have declined significantly, according to a study in the January issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).The MRSA Prevention Initiative, implemented nationwide in 133 VA long-term care facilities in 2009, led to a 36 percent overall decrease in MRSA infections (from .25 to .